Editor's Message

Marc Jason Gilbert

This
issue of World History Connected is
"big" in many respects. Its Forum is the largest yet in both size and scope: eight
articles tackle the issue of 'Big History" itself. Guest editor Craig
Benjamin has gathered a stellar group of scholar-practitioners who define,
explore and illuminate the value of Big History for world historians at all
levels of interest and levels of instruction.

This
issue also offers its first "Featured Review," usually a review of the
literature on a specific world history topic, which, given the Forum focus, is
a very appropriate essay by William Everdell entitled, "A Short History of Big
History." Several other articles and reviews address Big History in its many
forms, including an interview with John McNeill in which he addresses
environmental history. Other related articles include a discussion of a new
directory of courses in Big History prepared by Barry Rodrigue and Daniel Stasko and a report on Big
History classroom resources and a continuing survey of teacher experiences with
Big History developed by John Maunu with an assist from Alex Moddejonge. Helen Grady's review of the interdisciplinary
work, The Evolutionary Epic: Sciences
Story and the Humanities Response (which includes chapters written by some
of the Forum authors as well by this writer) ties the review section to the
"Big History" approach.

However,
this issue is just as large in its treatment of non-Big History issues. Anthony
Pattiz asks us to consider bringing the Japanese War Crimes trials into the
classroom, while new assistant Book Review Editor Alan Rosenfeld offers a
review of the newly republished Yasutaro Soga's Life Behind Barbed Wire, which had originally been released in
Japanese in 1948. Both essays remind us that the Second World War began 70
years ago last month. John Maunu offers the first installment of new content
for the "Links" tab on the Web Page whose focus is "Migration in World
History," a topic which is a likely subject of next year's Advanced Placement
Course in World History examination. James Diskant moves beyond his essay in
the previous number of this journal to offer additional techniques for
encouraging students to "become engaged learners who are willing to move beyond
their comfort zones of learning." Sharon Cohen addresses the question as to
why students often fail to derive value from reading textbooks and primary
sources and offers not only answers, but the means to surmount this difficulty.
Stuart Goldberg ties all these topics, from the cosmic (in terms of religious
outlooks) to the most intimate of human scales (what we choose to learn from
history) through his review of Salonica, a book which brilliantly demonstrates the truism that micro-studies can be as
revealing of world historical processes as macro-historical approaches.

All
the editors at World History Connected are
now gearing up for the challenge of going where no journal has gone before in
terms of assessing student learning about world history. It will feature a
Forum devoted to examining the gestating revision of the College Board's
Advanced Placement Course in World History and that revision's implications for
the field. As always, they look forward to your thoughts on the subjects
treated in this issue, on those subjects planned for future issues and on the
future direction of the journal. They also rely upon your feedback to validate
and critique their efforts. All editors (in the "Editors" file on the bottom
left hand of this page) and authors (at the conclusion of their articles) have
provided their email addresses. Contact them, let them know if they are serving
your needs, and consider making your own contributions to World History Connected through the submission of an idea, article
or other material that may can advance the field in terms of both scholarship
and teaching.

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